Understanding Sai Bukky

EXCEPT for the camp of President Muhammadu Buhari is light on realistic political reading and bereft of zero-hour intelligentsia, by now it is expected to have properly situated, separated, sieved and suctioned the most potent speed-breakers to whatever ambition Aso Rock and its allies, maybe nursing next year. Despite the undisguised state campaigns being unfolded, there are still thumb-cheesing clairvoyants who see the president not running. I had a vision too, his inner man didn’t want to, but it seems he had chosen to go with the sycophantic praise of his vainglory. Wish him luck.

With the president’s everyday boast of not handing the nation back to supposed looters of yesteryears, it is certain that he would have a huge say, if not all the say, in who succeeds him, next year. Whatever option he opts for, pragmatic dissection of the polity, within and outside the ruling party, should have communicated to the president’s situation room that Bukola Saraki, without doubt, the most dangerous politician in the land today, is Buhari’s biggest hurdle. Why?

Of all the front-row gladiators in the “camping of enemies” that ousted PDP and Goodluck Jonathan, he is the real evil genius of them all, though his traducers have also shown him siege. At every point of the control battle, he has a way of standing as a disinterested buyer, eyeing wares he desperately wants to take home. By staying away from the centrifugal APC caucus and NEC meetings, he has succeeded in making Oyegun’s future, a contest between Buhari and Bola Tinubu, with his man, Bolaji Abdullahi, staying inside and he, the enforcer, making his stand difficult to decipher. Yet, he is, in no way, of the Sai Buhari again, project.

Who will blame him? Shame is the worst affliction the devil can bring upon any man and his name. Bukola has received a heavy dose of it, from Buhari and Tinubu, all because he wanted to put his mouth where he had put his money and men. Surely, he must fight back and the Buhari corner must expect him to be the most ruthless, considering that unlike Tinubu that, frankly speaking, only lost his federal deposit and a couple of state investments in the South-West to Aso Rock expansionist and conquest agenda in Yorubaland, Bukola has almost lost the most precious gift a man should forever cherish; name.

While Tinubu can blame himself for opening the door of his political base to the “enemy” for national adulation and influence, Bukola surely didn’t become a PDP sell-out, to become a common felon in APC.

Nigeria’s most famous Bukky isn’t narcissistic in the real sense of it, but surely deviously pragmatic. Yoruba have a way of waving the red flag about any man who would for any reason take on his chi. Aren’t fathers, gods everywhere? Did Bukola not take on his own when he deemed it necessary and hand the grand old man, a stunning defeat? So, whose apparel would be too exotic not to be rent, be it classy Swiss lace, Arabian flora or Senegalese robe, especially when Aso Rock almost derobed Sai Bukky of all honour, both home and abroad?

A friend was having a hearty laugh as he played a recorded full-session curse on Bukola by a particular woman, whose identity I know not. God would have to be extra-merciful to block the least dangerous of her negative wishes for the Senate president. That is the new height of his political ascendancy. When you become such a divisive figure and it is difficult for nearly everyone, not to have an emotive opinion of you, then, you are getting there. The problem here is Bukola having more public evil wishers. I can visualize a tumultuous social media, should Saraki fall off the senate president seat today. That truth should be the turning point for him; to start turning those winning wiles to public affection.

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I figure the starting point is home. At least, he understands enough of Yoruba language despite being a mix of Canadian, South-African and Nigerian, to know the import of “ile lati nko eso rode (you must be a good man first at home). The general assumption that the role of first ladyish of the state hasn’t shifted despite the personality power shift of 2011, must rankle many. This is not factoring the pejorative perception of his successor due to the alleged Oga/boi-boi relational engagement since the supposed transfer of power, which many are ready to swear, was just in letters and not the spirit. Didn’t the Word of God say the letters killeth, but the spirit giveth life?

Maybe, because Saraki has a visage that “doesn’t move”, his capacity had been assumed underwhelming all these while. Days before the inauguration of the National Assembly, I was with a governor in Abuja to discuss the power shift and PDP’s bereavement. When done with him and sensing the party was about doing deal with Bukola despite the heartbreak he caused it, I called then APC spokesperson Lai Mohammed for an update on the party’s zoning. As usual, he was his overconfident self, talking bla bla about his own (Tinubu’s corner) “having this”. I smiled as we ended the call. Apart from not having it, (senate and rep), Bourdillion has been in perennial grief as betrayals piled up the misery of backstabbing. A strong Bourdillion ally, in our conversation days back, confessed that the single fatal mistake of their camp was taking Bukola on. I quipped, the senate president must be okunrin meta (a man of uncommon stamina). He replied, okunrin meta ati abo (more than his peers).

When a foe admits you are stronger, it isn’t time for an overkill. It is time to look back, assess the battles, the victories, the near-defeats, the great escapes, the bounties of war, et al. Then, a re-assessment for victory management. The acknowledged extra to Bukola’s sturdy politics is the investment that should go into public good. After all, foreman epaulette is mere adulation. One man cannot do the work of four persons.

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